Japanese calligraphy exhibition at University of Florida

Thomas Center Gallery and University of Florida

Campus view

Entrance to the campus of U. of Florida.		Thomas Center Gallery, site of the lecture and exhibit.

Exhibition Hall

Exhibition at the Thomas Center Gallery, Gainesville, Florida.		Many visitors said that this was the finest exhibit ever to be held at the Thomas Center Gallery.

Picture of a lecture

Mr. Onodera offered an excellent presentation, assisted by the translator, Michico Yonemaru.		In a response to the lecture, the Curator of the Samuel P. Hang Museum of the University of Florida, Charles Mason, explained the way Western observers might better appreciate the Japanese culture.



More than 100 people attended the lecture.		There were long lines of people waiting to enter.

Picture of a demonstration

Master calligrapher Koshu Matsuura gave a powerful demonstration and fascinated the audience.		Ms. Matsuura showed a broad picture of Kana and Kanji.

その他の交流事業

Local school teachers attend a workshop directed by Cheng Beng Hang, (wearing the black Chinese dress) from Tam Kang University in Florida; the workshops were part of an exchange project.		Samuel P. Hang Museum,, to which half of the calligraphy pieces of the exhibit were donated by Mr. Onodera.

Important Sponsors

Demonstrator Dokuritsu-Shojin Association Ms. Koshu Matsuura	Planner Visual Arts Coordinator City of Gainesville Department of Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs Ms. Erin Friedberg	Planner Coordinator for Education and Training, Asian Studies Program at the University of Florida, Ms.Amisha Sharma	Planner Associate Dean for Academic Affairs in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Florida Professor S. Yumiko Hulvey,


Lecturer Chief Curator and Curator of Asian Art The Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art, University of Florida Mr. Charles Mason	Interpreter Ms. Yonemaru Michiko	Planner Director of the Asian Studies Program at the University of Florida Professor Joseph Murphy	Planner Department of African and Asian Languages and Literatures Associate Professor and Chair at the University of Florida, Professor Ann Wehmeyer

The eighth section of the American tour was held in Gainesville, Florida, where the Thomas Center Gallery and the University of Florida are located. The University of Florida has 50,000 students and a staff of 30,000 people. Gainesville itself is a city of strong academic interests.. The exhibition was held through the cooperation of the University of Florida and the Thomas Center Gallery, a civic art center especially for leisure and cultural affairs. Both members of the University and citizens of the city attended the exhibition and lecture. All of the works were shown in the main gallery on the first floor of the Thomas Center. During the week, many students from the local elementary and junior high schools came to the exhibit as a class activity, and during the weekend the gallery was open to the public.

On the day of the lecture, there were long lines of people eagerly waiting to enter the hall. Local TV and press covered the event, and altogether, the lecture was a great success. The lecture opened with Mr. Onodera’s talk, translated by Michico Yonemaru. It was followed by a presentation from Mr. Charles Mason, Curator of the Samuel P. Hang Museum, of the U. of Florida; in his talk Mr. Mason helped the audience learn how to capture the spirit of Japanese.

The lecture was an intensely exciting experience for everyone and drew strong interest from the visitors. it was followed by a demonstration from Ms. Koshu Matsuura and many were enthralled by the demonstration. She showed the Kana, which emphasized the classical style. In addition, she wrote large characters, powerfully demonstrating the modern style. The lively vocal responses showed the high level of inspiration and delight in the room.

There are many people who made this tour such a great success, too many to name, but we are extremely grateful to them and will always remember this grand experience.

Some Thoughts on Western Appreciation of Japanese Calligraphy

By Charles Mason

Chief Curator and Curator of Asian Art
The Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art, University of Florida

Calligraphy has historically been one of the most difficult forms of Japanese art for Western people to appreciate. The first Japanese art forms to be widely appreciated in the West were ceramics and lacquer. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Japan became famous in Europe and America for the fine-quality polychrome porcelains produced in Arita and exported from the town of Imari. Gold-decorated lacquers were also much admired and imitated in the West at this time, so much so that the technique of lacquering became popularly known as “japanning.”

After Japan opened its borders to the outside world in the middle of the nineteenth century, Ukiyoe woodblock prints won widespread acclaim in the West and had a major influence on the emergence of Impressionism and other modern art movements in Europe at the end of that century. The interest in woodblock prints prompted a few Westerners to begin studying the history of Japanese painting during the early decades of the twentieth century, and painting emerged as an even more important subject of study after World War Two. But while Western knowledge of Japanese painting increased in the 1960s and 70s, calligraphy still received relatively little critical attention.

Indeed, it has only been in the last ten or twenty years that people in the West have really begun to recognize and appreciate Japanese calligraphy, which is why the current touring exhibition of Japanese calligraphy organized by the Shodo Journal is so important.

Two major factors have traditionally contributed to the difficult reception of Japanese calligraphy in the West. The first factor is the language barrier and the inability of most Westerners to read Japanese, especially kanji. Kanji characters are strange and intimidating to many people in the West, which creates a mental obstacle to the appreciation of calligraphy even when the inscriptions are translated.

The second factor that inhibits Western engagement with Japanese calligraphy is a lack of familiarity with brush and ink writing techniques. Most Americans and Europeans have never used a traditional writing brush and so cannot understand the physical skills and techniques that are employed in Japanese calligraphy. However, while the likely persistence of these factors mean that calligraphy will probably never enjoy the same widespread popularity in the West as Japanese prints or ceramics, there have been some recent developments that should create a more favorable climate for the reception of Japanese calligraphy in the future.

One such development that should make it easier for Westerners to appreciate Japanese calligraphy in the future is an ever-increasing knowledge of Japanese culture and history in the West. As more and more young Americans and Europeans are exposed to Japanese studies in school, they will understand the context behind the calligraphy even if the language and physical brush techniques remain foreign to them.

A second development that should make it easier for Westerners to appreciate Japanese calligraphy in the future is the greater acceptance of abstract and gestural art in Western culture. Again, most young people in the West are now very comfortable with the revolutionary art movements of the past half century and can quite easily manage the separate appreciation of form and content that is required by Japanese calligraphy.

And finally, a third development that should make it easier for Westerners to appreciate Japanese calligraphy in the future is the increased visibility of Japanese calligraphy that is being made possible through the internet. In previous decades it was difficult to see good examples of Japanese calligraphy without access to a specialist library or large museum. But with many museums and even some private owners putting their collections online, there is now much more material available to draw people to the subject.

Many people who saw the exhibition of contemporary Japanese calligraphy in Gainesville have told me how much they enjoyed the works and how much it broadened their appreciation of Japanese art in general. Therefore, although these people may not represent the average American, I believe the very favorable reception of the show indicates that the appreciation of Japanese calligraphy in the West will continue to expand and strengthen for many years to come. "

San Francisco State University	University of California at Berkeley	University of Utah	Wittenberg University	University of Colorado at Boulder
Colorado State University	University of Denver	Thomas Center Gallery	University of Michigan Dearborn	International Exhibition